You may remember I had it out a couple of years ago in Japan when spring sprung its ugly face a few weeks too soon. So… the Charlie, Mind blowing ! I love that you can set it up centered on the insert pack, keeping enough tail to really pop off and push through those epic pow turns that this thing is meant for. Bottom line, I have never felt so confident launching off things into pow at majorly high speeds.. Baldface top to bottom in a minute and a half.. RULING DECK !

This was also the first real test for the new Holden stuff I’ve been rolling..

You guys may remember Scotty Wittlake.. Holden teamed up with him to design a great bib pant.

I was a little worried when I felt the stretch fabric but was blown away. never wet and wearing the bib kept all that wonderful pow from blasting up my Jacket. Very pleasantly surprised.

Of course I rolled my usual Bern Macon lid … Number 1 for me. I no longer shred without the lid. Shits just not worth it to die for. I also like to blast through trees, its nice to feel protected…not to mention if you rag doll down the hill your gogs don’t get tossed off your head (I wear my goggle strap inter my helmet)

Deeluxe Rough Diamond 5 … was a little bummed that my new 6’s were sitting at my desk in Vancouver but these boots are the shit ! the double power strap keeps em tight on the ankle so I rolled em pretty much un-tied and just let my binding do the rest of the work.

Oh and of course Union … I actually can’t say much about what I was riding… AMAZING ! We do bindings that are designed to work in all directions.. I was a little bit skeptical… but really stoked on these jammers. Cross your fingers and prey they make em.

OH WE ALSO HAVE SOME NEW ITEMS or well items back in stock.. Check the store to the top right !

by UME
check out Ume! These kids are amazing and they are on tour right now with Cursive.

Ashley called me up and we made a plan to go have a fun shred night at Mt Seymour. We both left work a little earlier. but the slippery roads and the 87 Toyota took a little longer than we expected to get up to the hill.
The sun went down, the lights came on and the gopro found its way into my pocket.
That night Jon called me up and said BAKER ? i said YES! a few feet of new snow in the last few days made for a wonderful Saturday.
I wanted to talk about a ton of thing in this episode but … next time.
Hoe you all are enjoying the snow.

Products used by me.

Bern Macon Tj Schneider Helmet.. I roll this bad boy for every shred day… Dont be a dummy, wear a lid.

Drop Tj Schneider Goggle… rest in peace Drop gogs… if you can find some of these get em.. its a one shot only deal

Drop Goretex Mitten, Gore is the way to go.

Holden 20k Jacket, Fashion and Function … who knew!

Airblaster pants and ninja suite… love em ! for deep snow and warmth, they are a must.

CAPITA DOA 158…. holy shit, I like it!

Union Contact bindings…. These have the new high back … check em , so rad .

Deeluxe Rough Diamond 5 boots … I havent gotten the new ones yet .. but these are still the best ones to date. easy in and out , I love them.

This Episode was a nightmare, My computer exploded so I’m on a temporary set up.
If you feel so inclined to help get things back rolling the way they should… head over to the store and pick up some “LOVE”. The Snowboard Realms are free, I’d like to be able to keep making them.

Sales meeting week

One of my most exciting weeks of the year just went down in Zell am See Austria.

The, Deeluxe, CAPiTA, and Union Bindings, sales meetings are the first opportunity I have to see the new product lines first hand. Seeing a years worth of design and testing, turn into a physical product is pretty amazing… Actually, beyond amazing, kind of mind blowing, like seeing our little love child reborn each year.

This year, Deeluxe opened up their presentation of the 2012 “Inspiration Series” with my design of the “Rough Diamond 6”, I really can’t believe that I’ve designed 6 seasons worth of boots with Deeluxe…

My idea behind the “Rough Diamond” name, was to have a product that could forever evolve, each season getting closer to becoming a “perfect” product.

Similar to the steps a raw diamond has to go through before it’s placed on a ring.

Each year I’ve done a ton R&D on the boot, and each year we have found ways to improve it. This year we’re working with a ton of new materials, both inside and out. New cuff collars and insoles, improved the overall heel hold and support of the boot, and even though I didn’t think it was possible, the new liner improves the straight out of the box comfort of the boot…

Over all, the design of the Rough Diamond 6 is a lot cleaner that it has been in the past. Without saying too much, I’m really happy and excited for you guys to see this one.

The New Rough Diamond 6...

When Deeluxe finished up, Blue Montgomery came onto the stage to introduce the new 2012 CAPiTA line up.

There’s always exciting things happening over at CAPiTA. This past year, one of the more notable, in my opinion, is the introduction of our good friend, Sean Tedore to the family.

If you’ve been around a while, you’ll know who Sean is… just go back a few years and check out the early NeoProto flicks.

While Sean was a professional snowboarder, he worked his ass off, and received a full Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of Nevada, Reno. Over the last 6 years, Sean’s had a hand in developing over 20 other award winning snowboards…

Long story short, even though CAPiTA is a brand with more than half of their line being award-winning snowboards, year after year; most of the industry has viewed CAPiTA only as a leader in graphic department. The addition of Sean to the development team; means that the technical features of the boards will match the beauty of the outside.

This year is pretty exciting for me personally. 2012 marks the 10-year anniversary of the Midlife series. It’s crazy, I remember sitting in my high school English class drawing out my “pro model” products… I can’t say, I didn’t think it wouldn’t happen… But 10 years of designing a snowboard… It’s a dream come true.

Graphically, I’ve always tried to the incorporate the previous years story into the new boards. The first board I had a hand in designing was one of the first boards the industry had seen with a “heart” as the dominant image on the base… I remember sitting in JB’s basement and him saying “this is so rad! Just a big heart…” Jason really taught me to look at board graphics more as art pieces rather than just “cool” images on a snowboard. Anyway… I’m really stoked on how this one turned out. It’s clean and very simple. I hope you all like it.

Midlife Zero sneak peak.

After CAPiTA, was Union… I don’t think much needs to be said about these dudes, They are simply the best bindings out there. If you’re not currently riding Union bindings, chances are, the functions you like on your bindings, they probably had a hand in developing that.

Union.... a whole lot of Union.

Anyway, I forgot to tell Sebi that I was rolling into Austria for the sales meetings. To be honest I thought he would just be there and it would be quite the surprise… Instead, I had to call him and tell him to hope a train for 10 hours to come shred.

20 hours or so later Sebi was there.

Kits

Sebi, Pete and I were all rolling pretty much the same gear, Airblaster Nick Dirks Jacket, Airblaster Jed Anderson Pants. Pete and Sebi were in the Deeluxe “Street Boot” while I was in my “Rough Diamond 5”. Sebi and I both rolled the CAPiTA Midlife Zero 155, me with the Pabst collab binding and Sebi in the Team Atlas, Pete on a little Ultrafear set up.

Sorry dudes , but this is what the screen of my computer looks like. It’s bad timing and I don’t know when I’ll be able to afford a new computer. I’m looking into it though…I’m fresh back from Europe, where I went shredding with Sebi and Pete…Really hoping I can make that video soon.

If you were in one of the bands that let me use their music, It would be super rad if you could resend me some tracks. Everything is GONE. thesnowboardrealms@gmail.com

Also feel free to help us get back on track by heading over to the store and picking up a little love.